I had the oil in my car changed today and I got about a mile down the road and my car's check engine light came on. I got the code off of it and it is p0446 - EVAP emissions system - vent control valve circuit...what should I check and could it have been caused by the oil change?

The only other code my car has ever thrown was a fuel too lean code that was fixed by replacing the MAF sensor. Any ideas?

3/15/2009 9:35:53 PM

Quote :

"MAKE YEAR MODEL "

3/15/2009 9:38:01 PM

2001 kia optima, 4 cylinder

3/15/2009 9:39:19 PM

make sure your gas cap is on correctly/tight. #1 cause of evap/vent codes.

you might need to reset the computer also by disconnecting the negative battery cable or pulling the ecm/pcm fuse for 20-30 seconds.

[Edited on March 15, 2009 at 10:23 PM. Reason : .]

3/15/2009 10:21:17 PM

did you have an inspection. or get a need fuel filter

3/15/2009 10:37:00 PM

Quote :

"A NEED FILTER"

3/15/2009 10:44:02 PM

Quote :

"make sure your gas cap is on correctly/tight. #1 cause of evap/vent codes. you might need to reset the computer also by disconnecting the negative battery cable or pulling the ecm/pcm fuse for 20-30 seconds."

I did both of these things. I actually took it back to the place where I had the oil changed and they said a wire that went to the air compressor was disconnected. They reconnected it and I tightened the gas cap again and we reset the code and it came up again after about 40 miles.

3/15/2009 10:46:38 PM

only thing that could have been caused by the oil change is if some retard pulled off a vacuum/vent line somewhere in the engine bay messing around. that's generally where the evap canister is located. unlikely, but definitely possible, especially if it was jiffy lube or the like.

you could try replacing the gas cap also, they do go bad sometimes. other than that, i'd just be purely guessing... that's a pretty damn broad code to speculate on over the internet. you need someone to troubleshoot/diagnose it in person.

[Edited on March 15, 2009 at 10:55 PM. Reason : pm 69, he can probably give you the evap diagram from alldata if you want it.]

3/15/2009 10:54:00 PM

first of all, a P0446 has nothing to do with a leak, it has to do with the canister purge solenoid, in a nutshell, either it is unplugged or the solenoid is shot, i'll post up some troubleshooting tomorrow, i'm burned out from work today and it will take me a while to look up all that stuff, its been a long time since i worked on one of those nightmares of a shitbox

3/18/2009 10:33:19 PM

^You're right. My mechanic told me today that he thought that's what it was and he also said the filter on it was kind of dirty. I bought the replacement part today. The mechanic reset the check engine light when he checked it. I've driven the car over 200 miles and the light has not come back on. Should I still replace the part now or should I wait until the light comes back on?

3/19/2009 10:28:14 PM